DES ÉTANGS (Nicolas Chaales). MANUSCRIT signed in 3 places, - Lot 59

DES ÉTANGS (Nicolas Chaales). MANUSCRIT signed in 3 places, entitled "Le véritable lien des peuples, ou la Maçonnerie rendue à ses vrais principes. Initiations : R∴ +∴" In-4, red long-grained morocco, smooth spine cloisonné with gilt fillets, double framing of gilt fillets with flowered ornaments at the corners of the inner framing, mention "Rose-Croix" gilt on the first board, spines ornamented at the corners, inner gilt framing, midnight blue paper endpapers, gilt edges (period binding). 53 ff. in discontinuous pagination; pages calligraphically framed in red and black fillets, multiple for the general title and the three intermediate titles, and embellished with a frieze of grecques with crosses at the corners for the subtitle; headpieces worn, corners rubbed. Tuileur concerning "LE ROSE-CROIX RECTIFIE. 4e degré de la Maçonnerie rendue à ses vrais principes", which Nicolas Chaales Des Étangs would publish several times. AUTOGRAPHIC SIGNED SENDER to Thomas Binet, Venerable of La Parfaite Union de Rennes (one of the oldest provincial Lodges in France), with conditions: to make no changes, to conform to the instructions printed for initiations of the same Masonry, and to "make within six months of receipt of the said booklet some remarkable act of charity towards the poor of Rennes, or some other provision which turns to the profit of the order". He specifies at the head of this mailing: "N° du R∴ +∴ 21, n° des 3 1ers gra[des] 79, n° du G[rand] Él[u] Ch[evalier] K[ado]s[ch] 18, [soit] 118 atel[iers] ont les cah[iers] de La Maçonn[erie] rendue à ses vrais principes". With wax seal under paper with his initials. CHANTRE D'UNE FRANC-MAÇONNERIE UNIVERSELLE PRENANT S'DISTANCES AVEC LE CHRISTIANISME, NICOLAS CHAALES DES ÉTANGS (1766-1847) was Jean-Marie Ragon's successor as Venerable of Les Trinosophes Lodge, and also held positions within the Grand Orient from 1826. With his ritual, he proposed a rereading of tradition in a moral sense detached from explicitly Christian connotations, and succeeded in winning over up to a third of the chapters of his day. A civil servant by trade, he ended his career as curator of the Dépôt légal des estampes.